Kansas City, who won for the eighth time at home in 11 outings,
earned a split of the four-game series with Toronto despite
scoring just 12 runs in four games.

"Coming out of here swinging the bats the way we are with a
split is pretty good," Royals manager Buddy Bell said.

Perez (7-11), who lasted only three innings in his last start in
an 11-4 loss to Minnesota on Wednesday, allowed two runs and
eight hits over five innings, striking out three. With the win,
the lefthander won for just the third time at home this season
and halted a stretch in which he had lost three of his last four
outings.

"It was a challenge," Perez said. "Those guys have a great team
and great hitters in the lineup. To come out with a one-run
lead was good. The guys in the bullpen give us a good shot to
win.

"We had Perez on the ropes a couple of times but couldn't get
him," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "This time of the
year, a split doesn't do you any good where we're sitting."

After Toronto took a 2-1 lead in the top half of the third,
Butler pushed across the second of two runs in the bottom of the
inning with an RBI groundout. In his next at-bat in the fifth,
the 21-year-old singled to right to increase the advantage to
4-2.

"Two out of three times up I had a chance to do something,"
Butler said. "I tried to make the most of it. One time I
didn't get a hit but I got the guy over. That's not ideally
what I want to do. Typically, I'm trying to get a hit every
time with a guy in scoring position."

Gload, who replaced Butler at first base in the sixth inning,
extended the Royals advantage to 6-2 in the seventh inning on a
two-run triple to left-center.

"He gets a big triple to really give us some separation which
was huge against a team that can really swing the bat," Bell
said.

Rookie Jesse Litsch (4-5), making his first career start against
Kansas City, allowed five runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings,
striking out two and issuing two walks.

"Unfortunate things happen and I have to deal with them," Litsch
said. "My slider got me out of some jams and my changeup got
me out of a bases-loaded jam. I battled, but you can't be on
the winning side every game."

Kansas City's Mark Teahen belted his sixth home run of the
season, a shot into the right field bullpen, giving him his
first home run since May 29 - a stretch of 250 at-bats.

"It's been a long time," said Teahen of his homerless drought.
"It's nice to get it out of the way."

Reed Johnson had three hits - including a career-high two
doubles - and scored a run for Toronto, which was denied an
opportunity to win back-to-back road games for the first time
since June 9-10 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

ALAT KANSAS CITY - SCORING UPDATESOLO HOME RUN BY MARK TEAHEN (6) TO RIGHT WITH 2 OUT IN THE 1ST OFF JESSE LITSCH.CURRENT SCORE: TORONTO 0, KANSAS CITY 1DUE UP FOR KANSAS CITY: B BUTLER (.295, 4 HR, 31 RBI)